1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-material switching type collector for separating and collecting powdered or granular materials (here-in-after referred to as materials), dust (including mist in a wide sense; hereinafter this definition is to be adopted.), and transporting gas, which is incorporated into a pneumatic force transporting apparatus for transporting materials, raw materials for plastic, medicine, processed foods and the like, from a material supplying source through a transport pipe to a destination including a synthetic resin molding machine and the like, using the pneumatic force generated from sucked-in or pressurized transporting gas such as air, nitrogen gas and the like.
2. Prior Art
Recently, the plastic molding work and the like require multi-kind of products along with minimizing their producing lot. In order to meet such requirements, as shown in FIG. 11, the pneumatic force transporting for the materials capable of transporting various kinds of materials to one optional destination is proposed.
The conventional pneumatic force transporting apparatus takes an arrangement in which a plurality of hoppers A.sub.1, A.sub.2, A.sub.3 . . . for storing materials of a different kind respectively are connected to the one transport pipe B, rotary valves D, controlled to be opened or closed by control panel C, are provided at outlet ends of the hoppers A.sub.1, A.sub.2, A.sub.3 . . . , the one collector F, mounted to such a transporting destination as the plastic molding machine E, is connected to the opposite end of the transport pipe B, and, under such an arrangement, an operation of the control panel permits the desired rotary valve D of the hopper A.sub.1 . . . to be opened, thereby sucking in the desired materials to collector F by means of pneumatic force source G so that the materials, the transporting gas, and the dust are separated from one another at the collector F, only the materials being supplied to the plastic molding machine E.
When transporting the materials, optionally selected from a plurality of hoppers A.sub.1, A.sub.2, . . . , to the destination, however, since the conventional model having afore-mentioned construction performs all of their transportations by way of the same transport pipe B, it possesses a problematic point that the last transportation before the present one causes an adherent residue of the materials of a different kind to take place in the transport pipe B or the collector F, whereby a mixture of the materials is incurred at their replacement. When molding the plastic, for example, if the molding process is performed under the afore-mentioned state of the mixture, the finished moldings become improper.
For this reason, resulting drawbacks of the conventional model are that, in order to avoid the afore-mentioned mixture of the materials, there are necessities of air-blowing the inside of the transport pipe B by compressed air or performing such a laborious and time-consuming cleaning work as an climination of the residual materials adhered to a filter and the like in the collector F every a replacement of the materials and that, in addition to inability of reducing time necessary for the replacement of the materials, a special apparatus for air-blowing becomes needed.